Why does God allow deception?
Deception is not a gap in God's rule; Scripture shows Him permitting it, overruling it, and at times sending it as a judgment. That raises the hard question of how a God of truth can hand people over to a lie — and what keeps anyone from falling for one.
Nothing Deceives Outside His Control
Lies belong to the enemy, but they never escape God's hand. Commenting on how God spoke even through Caiaphas, one writer notes that the same God who once used a hired prophet to bless His people can turn any instrument to His purpose:
William KellyMost solemn it is to see that God at the last hardens those who have long hardened themselves against the truth... He is Sovereign. He can employ evil as well as good — these heartily, those in spite of themselves, and if their will is in it, with a sense as wicked as themselves.
The clearest picture is King Ahab, whose four hundred prophets all told him what he wanted to hear while a lying spirit stood behind them:
Leslie M. GrantThis may seem a strange situation, but it illustrates the fact that the Lord allows evil spirits to do their evil work of lying so that ungodly people will be deceived, just as 2 Thessalonians 2 indicates the folly of those who are deceived by the strong delusion the Lord sends by means of the antichrist because of people's refusing to believe the truth of God. Thus, because Ahab had refused God's Word, he would accept the falsehood of Satan's prophets.
An Exchange, Not an Accident
The delusion of the last days is described as something God sends — and it answers, point for point, what men have already rejected:
H. H. SnellGod always overrules man's ways, and Satan's too, to accomplish His own counsels and purposes. All this evil is therefore permitted and overruled to carry out God's will... God sent His beloved Son the faithful witness, and men rejected Him; they shall therefore, in retributive justice, receive a false witness. They refused the truth, they shall now believe a lie. They saw no beauty in the true Christ, they shall wonder after a false one.
Another writer puts the same principle in one line God might address to such people: If you love a lie, you shall have a lie. (The Christian's Friend)
Is That Fair?
The objection is obvious, and commentators meet it head on rather than dodging it. The order of events matters: the gospel came first, and was heard:
F. B. HoleFormerly God sent them the truth, the gospel was sounded into their ears by men who preached it "with the Holy Spirit sent from heaven"... Now God sends them a strong delusion. He does for them what long ago He had to do for rebellious Israel, when He "blinded their eyes and hardened their heart." Is God unrighteous in acting like this? On the contrary; He is acting in righteousness of the strictest and most exact kind.
Anyone who wants to argue the point is handed the burden of proof:
C. H. MackintoshBefore the sceptical mind finds fault with this, let it prove that all who are dealt with in this judicial way have fully answered their responsibilities... Unquestionably, the task of proving rests on those who are inclined to quarrel with God's way of dealing with the rejecters of His truth.
Permitted Wonders as a Test
Long before the New Testament, Israel was warned that a false prophet might give a sign that actually came true — and told plainly why God let it happen. Miracles, then, settle nothing by themselves:
W. W. FeredayEven miracles must not be accepted as unanswerable proof of a divine mission on the part of those who perform them... The possibility is there supposed of someone giving a sign or wonder which really came to pass, and which had for its object to divert men from their allegiance to the true God. "The LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul"... And what is the true safeguard of the soul? We have it in Paul's charge to the Ephesians: "I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified."
What Actually Keeps You Safe
If clever people can be fooled, the protection cannot be cleverness:
C. H. MackintoshIt is the love of the truth that preserves from error, however persuasive, however fascinating, however strongly supported by the powerful evidence of "great signs and wonders." It is not cleverness, intellectual power, mental grasp, or wide learning; all these things are completely powerless in the presence of Satan's schemes.
That leaves the ordinary believer in a restful position rather than an anxious one:
C. H. MackintoshWe are not called on to analyse the false doctrine, or to weigh the evidence put forward in its favour; we reject both, with firm decision, simply because we have the certainty of the truth and the love of it in our hearts.
Summary
- Truth first. God sends the truth before He ever sends a delusion; the lie only follows a gospel already heard and refused.
- Truth refused. Deception is the answer to a choice already made — refuse the faithful witness, and receive a false one.
- Truth tested. God even lets a sign come true, so that what a heart really loves is brought into the open.
- Truth loved. The safeguard is not intelligence or argument but love of the truth, held with God and His word.
- Truth vindicated. God stays sovereign over every lie, employing evil as well as good, and His judgment on those who preferred unrighteousness is strictly righteous.